Inga

Nordic Folkboat
1959

In 1977 I bought a Nordic Folkboat in Victoria BC. Built in 1959 in Vejle, Denmark by Borresen’s, the boat was a 25’ 6” copper-fastened clinker hull of pitch-pine on oak, with a mahogany house and spruce spars. It had been part of a large fleet of Folkboats racing in San Francisco Bay, before being brought up to Victoria. For 22 years I sailed this boat with my family, from Victoria and Vancouver through the Gulf Islands, the San Juans, Desolation Sound, and up to Hot springs Cove above Tofino on the west coast of Vancouver Island. Over time, the boat was rigged for single handing, with all lines led to the cockpit, and the original bronze winches served for both jib sheets and halyards. A new spruce boom was built after the old one broke against the shrouds in an uncontrolled jibe. (All the cabinetry, originally glued up with resorcinol glue, let go after 20 years and everything was redone with cold-cure epoxy.) The boat was finally sold in 1999 to Roger Clapham, who removed and rebedded the keel, and replaced the fibreglass decks with traditional plywood and stretched canvas. (Much of this work was done by Tony Grove, a shipwright on Gabriola Island with a strong penchant for Folkboats.)

In 1982 I installed a Yanmar 1GM diesel engine in the boat, replacing the transom-mounted 9 HP Mercury outboard which was prone to quitting when pitched underwater in a seaway. The installation involved bolting new timber beds to the floors for the engine to sit below the companionway, boxing it in and attaching a new traveller to the top; new drop-boards were made and the sliding hatch rebuilt. The sternpost, reinforced with oak cheekpieces, was drilled through for the propellor shaft. The rudder was cut away to accommodate a 3-bladed bronze propellor, cast by Osburne in North Vancouver. (This cut away severely weakened the rudder, which snapped in two the first trip through Baines Channel; a temporary repair with marine plywood plates and stainless bolts served for more than 15 years.)